Thursday, April 23, 2009

Ritter in trouble

Bill Ritter's approval numbers have gone into negative territory in Colorado, with 49% of voters in the state saying they disapprove of his job performance compared to 41% who say they like what he's doing.

Ritter's standing has seen a gradual drop over our last three polls of the state, from a 49/36 spread in mid-December to a 47/40 one in late January to today's numbers.

There isn't really any one place you can point to explain the drop in his popularity. He's seen a drop among Democrats, Republicans, and independents.

He trails former Congressman Scott McInnis 48-41 in a possible contest. McInnis is viewed favorably by 32% of voters in the state, the same number we found when we polled on him as a possible Senate candidate back in January.

McInnis leads the hypothetical match largely because he has his party more unified around him than Ritter does. While 81% of Republicans say they would vote for McInnis just 73% of Democrats commit to Ritter. Independents are basically a wash.

Ritter does lead another potential GOP candidate, Josh Penry, 42-40.

It's a long way until November 2010, but for Bill Ritter reelection is no guarantee.

2 comments:

Looking at all of your Colorado polling, it seems the Democrats are in trouble in this state. It appears that the state is moving away from the Democrats as fast as it embraced them in the 2006-08 cycles?

It seems like Governor's in general are not doing well regardless of party. Corzine was down. Patrick was down. Jinal was down. Rick Perry was down. I believe all of those were below 50 in the last few weeks, and Perdue had her lowest numbers yet. (those are just the examples I can think of but can't remember the last time I saw a Gov poll anywhere that wasn't at the least a drop) Maybe everyone likes Obama but still have to blame someone for continuing economic trouble.